Crash Bars or Highway Bars?

If you are reading this you probably know a little bit about motorcycles. I love to ride my C-50 Suzuki. OK it’s not a Harley Davidson but it runs great and is paid for! On most afternoons I ride the country roads of Shelby County. On weekends I sometimes ride to my Mom’s in Lincoln County. I really love to ride and it has become a very enjoyable hobby. If gas surges up again we may all be riding on two wheels instead of four. (50 miles a gallon is not bad!)

We motorcycle folks like to add stuff to our bikes. You can go on line and see thousands of add-ons to really sharpen the appeal of your bike. I recently added some used saddle bags that I purchased off Craig’s list (did I tell you I was cheap?). There are all kinds of equipment you can buy for your motorcycle. I recently ordered something else that I really needed. They are commonly called crash bars or highway bars. They fit on the front of your bike around the frame and bow out somewhat so that if you do wreck they will protect you.

So what does a discipleship blog have to do with motorcycle equipment?

My preference is to refer to this equipment as highway bars rather than crash bars. Crash bars sound like it’s an accident waiting to happen but highway bars denotes a much friendlier, gentle, safer definition. To be honest I bought these things just in case I lay my bike down (motorcycle jargon for “I had a wreck”).

Do we do the same thing with the words we choose to use as we teach and preach?

Do we sometimes avoid a certain biblical word because it is not user-friendly or maybe it will offend someone or because it is not politically correct? A great example is the word “sin.” Have you heard of this word before? The Bible uses this word frequently and according to Romans 3:23 it has affected the entire human race, “for all have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

Sin is not a culturally admired word so we use words to replace sin like: failure, mistake, foible, discretion, blunder, mishap, lapse, failure in judgment, idiosyncrasy, etc. All those terms are “highway bar” terms for a word we need to use to communicate truth and that word is “sin.” We don’t need to shy away from this word as we teach and preach.

Yea it is a crash bar type of word because it is the very thing that will destroy us and wreck our lives if we are not careful. We may prefer highway bar type words but to be true to Scripture we need to use what the Bible uses.

Be careful out there on the road fellow bikers and Keep the Son in your Eyes and your helmet on!

Meta

28Nineteen is all about discipleship. It is about carrying out our Lord's Great Commission as recorded in Matthew 28:19-20. Making disciples of all nations begins "as we are going through life" building relationships with people who are far from God, loving them to Jesus, helping them to grow in relationship and obedience, and invest in others.